Originally published on September 16, 2024 (Episode 375)
Introduction
It is the most influential book in history, setting the technological standard for what a “book” could be while also standing at the heart of a world-spanning religion. The Bible never claimed to be the direct words of God but rather the result of a mysterious partnership between the divine and human authors—a “divine word written by human hands.”
Through centuries of translations, editions, and adaptations, the Bible has been both a stable canon and a remarkably flexible vessel for human ideas, faith, and creativity. In his new work The Bible: A Global History (Basic Books, 2024), Bruce Gordon traces how this text moved from the eastern Mediterranean to the farthest corners of the earth, becoming what he calls “the story of humanity’s grasp for the impossible: the perfect Bible.”
About the Guest
Bruce Gordon is the Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale Divinity School. A native of Canada, he has written widely on the Reformation, including biographies of Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin, as well as a biography of John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion.
For Further Investigation
Bruce Gordon, The Bible: A Global History (Basic Books, 2024)
—, Calvin (Yale University Press, 2009)
—, The Swiss Reformation (Manchester University Press, 2002)
Related Episodes
“The Protestant Reformation” with Ronald Rittgers
“Dominion” with Tom Holland, on the manifold influences of Christianity on the modern world
Listen & Discuss
What makes the Bible so enduring—its divine claims, its human voices, or the sheer power of storytelling? Share your thoughts in the comments, and don’t be shy about passing this episode along to someone who’s ever kept a Bible on their shelf.
